When You're Ready For The One
by mxcmetrominuscity
Summary: Gabriella has a quiet life in a small town. While she's at her friend's house she meets Troy, a guy with a similar lifestyle who lives near her. When they realize there are real feelings between them, Gabriella wonders if she can have a lasting relationship with him like she wants, or if she'll make the mistakes that she made in the past and the whole thing will come crashing down.
1. Similarities

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE**

Gabriella woke up to the sound of a loud TV. She groaned and reached for the remote to turn it off. It was one in the afternoon, but she had been randomly falling asleep more on the weekends, which were the two days she had off, Saturday and Sunday, from her job as a cashier at Starbucks. She was surprised that she had enough money to afford a house, but it was a small one and her parents had chipped in a lot. Gabriella was now twenty-six, but still didn't really have any desire to move up in life. A small, quiet, boring life was good in her opinion.

She clicked off the TV and sighed as she listened to the silence of her house. She wasn't sure why she'd been so tired recently. She lay there, bored for a few minutes until she heard her cell phone ring. It was all the way over on the other side of the house, and she really didn't want to get up to get it. But she didn't know how important it was, so she stood up, walked over to the kitchen table and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey Gabriella! Come on over here."

"Again? Taylor, why are you always having everybody over?"

"Cause it's fun. And it's been a whole week since you've been over. Come on, I'll see you."

She sighed and put down her phone. Taylor thought that just because they lived five houses apart meant that Gabriella should come over along with all of Taylor's other friends all the time. On the other hand, she really didn't have anything better to do. So she fixed her hair and put on some makeup before heading out the door.

When she got there, she found mostly everyone sitting in the living room, talking. Gabriella figured that she might as well head over there, but she was stopped by three other women: Tierra, Tiffany and Karla. She wasn't sure if they knew it, but they could sometimes have a really in-your-face type personality. Gabriella didn't think of them as bullies, but they were really aggressive about everything and could sometimes get a little mean and a little snappy.

Tiffany started laughing and asked Gabriella, "How's Greg? And Brian? And James? And all your other exes?"

"You're hilarious, all three of you." Gabriella responded. She walked over to the living room and passed Taylor, saying "I don't know why you're friends with them."

Taylor looked at Gabriella sympathetically. "Just don't think about it."

Gabriella headed over to the living room entrance. Those people that had been named, Greg, Brian and James, and the "other exes," were all her boyfriend at one point over the course of the past two months. Gabriella had recently been getting more clingy, needy and desperate to find someone, and since a long time ago, all her exes had dumped her; she didn't dump them. She had now become a lot less self confident and it's been more common for her to give her body out to any guy who she thought she had a chance at. Yet at the same time she was still shy about a lot of things, including that. She didn't even know why she was suddenly becoming like this, but it was a personality change that she couldn't fight.

When she stepped into the living room, there wasn't really a place for her to sit, except the small, two or three person couch that was empty. She sat down on one side of that and hoped that someone, preferably a guy, would sit down next to her.

As she looked around the room, she noticed that she knew about half the people there. A lot of Taylor's friends were people Gabriella had just never seen before, and she felt shy here.

She leaned back in the couch and looked out the window. It was a mostly cloudy day, and Gabriella was starting to feel that bored, tired feeling again that she got right before she fell asleep. She drifted off into her own thoughts for a few minutes until she saw Tierra, Karla and Tiffany come in and sit down on a couch on the other side of the room. They started laughing and mouthing the word "exes" to her. Gabriella rolled her eyes and tried to forget about it, but she did feel hurt deep down when they brought that stuff up, since she was waiting intently for the day where she found someone who she knew would last, and was currently becoming less and less confident in her chances of it.

As Gabriella's thoughts trailed off again, a man walked into the room, with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing jeans and a slim-fitted hoodie, and stood next to her. "Is this spot taken?"

Gabriella woke up all the way and sat up straight. "No, you can sit here."

"Alright." He sat down right next to her, his right leg almost touching her left. "Well, thank you." After a few seconds, he added, "I'm Troy Bolton."

"I'm Gabriella Montez." She said quietly.

"Have you ever been over here?"

"Definitely." She smiled. "I live in that light blue house a few houses down from here on the corner of this street so Taylor calls me a lot and asks me to come."

"Oh, I always notice that house when I come here because of its color. That's yours?"

"Yeah, it does stand out. That's my house."

Troy nodded. "Alright. Well, I live in the neighborhood next to this one, about five minutes away on foot."

"How often does she call you out of the bullpen?"

He laughed. "She calls everyone out of the bullpen, which can be proved by looking around at everyone here. But we've been friends for about a year and I come over when everyone else is here. But we're just friends."

"You and Taylor?"

"Yeah."

"Everyone's a friend right now for me, I'm not in any relationship." Gabriella said.

"Oh neither am I. But my best friend just got married. He's my age, twenty-seven, and that's why Taylor and I are friends, because he's friends with her."

"So that would make me only a year younger than you."

"You're twenty-six?" Troy asked.

"Yeah."

"I'm pretty sure I've seen you before."

"Where?"

"At Starbucks I think."

Gabriella smiled and nodded. "Yeah, you've seen me. I don't remember seeing you but I work there so if you think you saw me you probably did."

"Well it was only like two weeks ago so it's easy to remember. I go there sometimes on my lunch hour since I work at Target, which obviously is in the same area."

"Yeah the whole shopping center is pretty close together. I can see the Target out the side windows and it's really close."

"That's what makes it convenient about working in that area. Everything's a short walk, no matter where you want to go."

Gabriella nodded. "I walk pretty much everywhere except to work. Since this is obviously a small town, everything's close together and that makes it easy."

"I walk a lot too, I only drive when I'm in a hurry, going to work or feeling really lazy. It still beats my childhood, since everything in the town was spread out way too far."

"Yeah then you have to drive everywhere. I lived in another small town when I was growing up, so I've always walked places. I used to always walk down about three blocks with three of my friends to a place where there was this valley with rivers in it and we would walk along the rivers and around the valley all day and it would take hours because it was so big, but it never got old or tiring because it was so beautiful there."

"My town was out in the middle of nowhere. So when I got my license in high school my friends and I, about five of us, would frequently drive down to where a lake turned into this river and we would get into one of my friend's, John's, boat. My family didn't have a lot of money growing up, but John was rich because his parents owned a business. So he had a motorboat and we would all get in it and go down the river, which was awesome because it was really rough and we always felt like we were going to fall out."

Gabriella laughed. "I can picture that. I used to like doing stuff like that but I kind of...grew up? No offense if you're still like that."

"No, it's fine." Troy said smiling. "If that's the term you want to use then I grew up too. I don't really like doing that stuff anymore. I kind of grew out of it."

"Oh okay. And yeah I grew out of it also sometime in the middle of high school. Now I just like a less exciting, calmer life. I guess one that's described by other people as boring, but that's what I like."

"No, I get what you're saying." Troy said. "I'm like that too. I have a small house that I got a couple years ago, about the same size as the houses in your neighborhood, and I don't feel the need to get a bigger one or try to enhance my life by getting more expensive stuff."

"Yeah it helps to not give in to that grass-is-always-greener mindset. I like the idea of a small, simple life, which is what I have now and what you have now, and I think it's cool since that's what we both like and want to stick with."

"Yeah, it's interesting. If you compare, based on what I know so far, we're pretty similar."

"I noticed." Gabriella said.

Troy nodded and sat back. "Are you here a lot?"

"Usually about once every weekend or so. On average. How about you?"

"About the same thing."

Gabriella was impressed at how much they had in common. Troy seemed like someone who was right up her alley. She turned her head to look at him and saw that he was already looking at her. They made eye contact before Troy's eyes went back to the floor.

His phone rang about fifteen seconds later. "Excuse me." He got up and left the room to take the call.

Gabriella looked around. She noticed the sun had come out and Taylor was looking at her from across the room. They both looked down when they saw each other, and then Troy came back.

"Hey Gabriella, sorry but I have to leave now. I want to keep talking to you though so could you put in your number?"

"Yeah, sure. And could you put yours in too?" She handed him her phone and took his. She saved her name and gave it back to him.

"Yeah. Thanks." He said.

"Yep." Gabriella saw that the new contact, Troy, had just saved to her phone. She put her phone back in her pocket.

"Well, anyway, I'll talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye, Troy."

He smiled at her and walked out of the room.

Gabriella sat back in the couch and smiled. She was really excited about Troy and felt like he might make her forget all about the last two months of ex-boyfriends. She had been acting undisciplined with herself and with them, and had been hooking up with just about every one of them in the beginning of the relationship, one by one, as they came along. She wasn't going to try and change all of a sudden to act like a saint, but at the same time, if she slept with Troy, she wanted to be more careful and figure out, in case that situation did come up, if he wanted to do it for the same reason that she wanted to do it, which would be that she cared about him and wanted to stay with him. Because later, she knew she would probably feel that way about him, and that's when she would want to sleep with him.

Tiffany, Karla and Tierra all thought of Gabriella as a one-night standing, hardcore slut, but she really wasn't, and the only reason she would spend the night with a guy who she hadn't really been with for a long time was because she thought mutual feelings were there that weren't really there. But she felt like she could trust that if she were to sleep with Troy, those mutual feelings would be there, and he would stay with her after that, since he did seem like someone who, just like her, would do it for love.

Gabriella realized that the bottom line was that she would just have to wait and see what would happen between her and Troy. And if they got together, she was excited to see how far they could go in a relationship.

**THERE ARE MORE CHAPTERS COMING, BUT THAT'S CHAPTER ONE! I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS STORY. IT'LL BE GREAT. PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO GET BETTER AND I'LL BE UPDATING _VERY_ SOON. ALSO, PLEASE LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN A REVIEW, I LOVE GETTING THOSE. THANKS, AND THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE OUT SOON!**


	2. Real Feelings

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER TWO**

"Is this like a here-we-go-again situation?" Taylor asked.

"I hope not." Gabriella said. "Troy seems different from the other guys and he's been coming to see me at work on his lunch hour since he works at Target and that's really close to the Starbucks where I work."

It was the weekend after Gabriella met Troy, and she was at Taylor's house again, with another large group of people. The sun was shining this time, and she was busy talking to Taylor.

"What do you think of him?"

"I think he's really sweet and seems a lot nicer than the other guys I've been with. We're still just friends but I'm pretty sure he likes me as more, and I think he can tell that I feel the same."

"So you do like him as more than a friend?"

"Yes."

"Don't you think you're a little...over anxious to get a boyfriend?"

"You mean I'm acting like a slut?"

"Not like an actual slut, but you seem kind of needy, for lack of a better word."

"You must be Sherlock's daughter. What made you solve that difficult puzzle? The fact that I've had a hundred thousand boyfriends in the last couple months? One at a time?" She laughed.

"Yeah, that was pretty much it. So would you want to be with him because you need to be with someone or you like him?"

Gabriella thought. "A little of both, but more because I like him. The more I like a guy, the less I'll want to be with him just because I need someone, because the attraction towards them is getting bigger. It's like a pie chart. When one thing gets bigger, the other gets smaller."

Taylor nodded. "Well, there's Troy over there." She pointed to the front of the house, where he was talking with some other guys. "You could go over to him."

"Well, I'll wait for him to sit down somewhere and be pretty much alone. He doesn't have to be by himself but I don't want to go over when he's with all those people."

"Alright, well, good luck, whenever you go." Taylor walked into another room, leaving Gabriella alone.

"Hey!"

Gabriella turned around to see Tiffany. "Where's the rest of your militia?" She asked.

Tiffany laughed. "They're not here today, it's just me. So I figured I could be entertained by interrogating you. How long was it before you hooked up with Troy?"

"We haven't hooked up yet, we aren't even together."

"Oh, well you know I have good reasons for thinking that you would sleep with someone who you barely know. In fact, I named my reasons. I named them Greg, Josh, Brian, Sam..."

"Alright, alright I get it. But Troy's different from them, mainly because he doesn't create an arrogant or stressful atmosphere when I'm talking to him. I feel comfortable around him, so I don't do stupid stuff that I did with the other guys."

Tiffany shrugged. "Whatever you can do to convince yourself, that's alright."

"I don't need to convince myself."

"Alright, well I'm assuming you like him?"

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure he feels the same, but I want to be sure he does before I go do anything dumb."

"Dumb as in offering your body?"

"Yeah, or dumb as in just telling him I like him before I should. Because that happens to me a lot, where I would be willing to bet money that later, a guy will want to be with me, but I rush it and do things too soon so it's ruined."

"Then I guess you should take it slow with him."

"Well, compared to what I normally do, I already have, and it seems like he's ready to make a move also. As of right now I intend on waiting a little longer, but if he really seems like he feels the same today, then I might tell him."

"You mean tell him you like him here, today?"

"Yeah."

"So basically you're ready to be his girfriend and if the situation were to come up you would happily volunteer for it?" Tiffany asked.

"Yes, but what situation?"

"The situation where it would be time to tell him."

"Oh. Yeah, I would."

"How high are you setting the bar for him?"

"What do you mean?"

Tiffany shrugged. "I doubt if you ask him and he says 'Yeah, sure, whatever,' you're going to be thrilled. For you to be happy, how much enthusiasm would he have to show?"

"It depends on the way he's acting. I'm not really sure what he'll do."

"Do you feel confident?"

Gabriella smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think he really does like me as more than a friend and I'm pretty sure that if I asked him today he would say yes."

"Okay."

Gabriella had a thought. "Wait, you aren't asking me all this because he told you to, are you? Or because you're going to tell him the way I want him to respond when I ask him?"

"No, of course not. I barely even know him. I was just asking because I was curious and I wanted to see if you were going to act the same as you always have."

"Yeah, I made some screwups in the past. But I have to forget about that."

"Okay."

"Hey Gabriella!" Troy walked up right behind her and Gabriella was a little startled. She turned around and laughed.

"Hi Troy."

Tiffany looked at her feet. "Well, I guess I'll just leave you guys alone. Bye Gabriella."

"Bye."

She walked off and Troy looked back at Gabriella. "How have you been?"

"Great, how about you?"

"Also great, I just took a new way here because one of my friends told me it was a 'shortcut.' Well, I ended up getting lost, but there was this clearing with a lake and huge trees. It felt like childhood again."

"Are you talking about the woods between my neighborhood and your neighborhood?"

"Yeah. I always went around them, I never thought to go through them."

Gabriella laughed. "Getting lost is probably why."

Troy smiled. "Well now I know how to go through them though, so it's fine." He walked over to the living room and Gabriella followed.

"Hey, look, our couch is open." She said.

"Our couch? The one we sat on last time?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, it's open. Want to sit there again?"

"Sure."

They both sat down on the empty couch that they were on last time when they met. Gabriella slid closer to Troy, leaving no room in between them for their arms, so Troy put his right arm on Gabriella's thigh and Gabriella did the same to Troy's leg with her left arm.

"How's work been?" Troy asked.

"It would be boring if there were different people working there but there are four other girls who work at the registers next to me, and it's really fun to talk to them. How about you?"

"I like how I can spend half the time walking around with the other staff members. We stock the shelves and answer people's questions, but talk to each other all day. So it's a similar situation in Target to what you have in Starbucks, and the fun parts of it kind of make up for the low pay."

Gabriella laughed. "They certainly do for me. I don't really have anything left to buy that I want for my house or whatever, so I can get by with not a lot of money."

"Agreed." Troy said. "I like keeping things simple."

"This coming from a guy who was out in a motorboat all day, every day in high school." Gabriella laughed.

Troy smiled. "No, you know I grew out of that. You told me you used to be similar, so I guess we just changed."

"It's awesome how we changed from the same thing at the same time to another same thing."

"Yeah, now we can both agree that the boring life in a small house by the woods is good."

When Gabriella thought about how great it was that they were so similar, she realized that she would be an idiot if she passed this chance up. So she sat forward and looked at Troy, who also sat up. She asked him, "What's this place you were talking about with a clearing and a lake in the middle of the woods? I didn't know there was one."

"The woods between mine and your neighborhood has that clearing, and it's a little off to the left if you were to walk straight out the sideyard of this house."

Gabriella nodded. She sat there in silence for a few seconds until Troy kept talking.

"Can I show you?"

Gabriella smiled. "Yeah, I would love that."

Troy smiled back and started to get up. "Do you want to go now?"

"Yeah, of course." She said enthusiastically.

"Alright." Troy walked out of the room and towards the front of the house. Gabriella followed and walked next to him, then they headed over to where he was talking about.

Gabriella felt Troy intentionally brushing his hand against hers as he walked. She brushed a little harder and leaned into his side to push herself back to walking side by side with him.

Troy bumped her, so she bumped him back. They both laughed and started walking down the sidewalk, taking turns bumping into each other on purpose.

When they reached the entrance to the woods, Troy grabbed Gabriella's hand. "It's a little tough to keep your balance and first, so be careful."

Gabriella smiled and squeezed his hand tighter. They stepped over bumps in the ground and some fallen branches until the trees became more spread out.

She looked around. "That's weird, you'd think that there would be more trees in the middle."

"Well, we're coming up on the clearing, so they're getting further apart. And now it should be easy to keep your balance."

"Yeah." The ground had evened out and there were no obstacles in their path, but Gabriella noticed that Troy still hadn't let go of her hand.

They came to a point where Gabriella could see a lake behind a group of trees.

"Here it is." Troy said. They stepped out past the trees and were in the large clearing Troy was talking about.

"Wow." Gabriella said. "It's right in the middle of the woods, you can see the trees' leaves are still covering the sky, but there's all this open space."

"Yeah, I wonder how their branches can reach out that far, since there's a pretty big hole to cover. It's a huge clearing, I don't know what it's doing here, but I'm not complaining. I love the lake."

"I do too, it's bigger than I expected, and you can go right down to one of those rocks and sit by it." She pointed to a cluster of small boulders, about the size of a bench, that was near the lake's edge.

"You want to go sit there?" Troy asked.

"Sure." Gabriella walked with him, still holding hands, down to a smooth, oval shaped one. They sat down next to each other and looked out on the lake.

"I didn't think there was a place like this here."

"Neither did I, until today." Troy said.

"It's really beautiful. I love how there are rocks and trees along the entire perimeter of this big lake."

"It does look really pretty." He held Gabriella's hand tighter and reached around her side. "Brace yourself."

"What?"

Troy pulled her up with both arms, onto his lap. Gabriella laughed with surprise and slid back against his chest. Troy turned her so she was sitting on his lap, with her back against his chest and stomach, facing the same direction as him, and rested his head on her shoulder, then tilted it into her head. He wrapped his arms around her stomach, holding onto both of her hands.

Gabriella smiled and stroked her thumb over Troy's hands. She felt her heart beat faster and she slid back against Troy, as close as she could. He turned his face into her cheek and smiled. Gabriella felt him exhaling on her ear and could tell his breath was speeding up. Feeling him breathing on her like that when they were being so intimate sent chills down her spine.

"Troy, something tells me it doesn't matter where we are, because I'm not noticing anything about this place anymore."

Troy laughed and pulled Gabriella tighter against him. "Neither am I."

Gabriella turned her head up and to the side to look in Troy's eyes. "I think I should tell you how I feel now. There's never going to be a better time."

Troy nodded and said, "I feel the same."

Gabriella touched her forehead against his. She was trying to think of what to say next when Troy continued.

"We both have the same personality, the same views and the same lifestyle. That's better than I've seen out of anyone in a long time. I love being around you and I've been wanting to tell you this for a while, but I have strong feelings for you."

Gabriella kept staring intently into his eyes. "I wanted to tell you the same thing Troy, but I couldn't think of a time or a place to do it, but here is obviously as good as it'll get. I agree with everything you just said and I also have feelings for you. You've been on my mind all the time and I'm glad I could finally tell you."

They stared at each other for a bit until Troy asked, "Gabriella?"

"Yes?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, Troy, I would love that." He smiled back at her and she turned around so she was facing him. She sat on his lap with her face, chest, stomach and waist all against his, and had on leg on either side of his hips as Troy held her against him. Then she wrapped her arms around his upper back and wrapped her legs tightly around his lower back.

"Wow, Gabriella..."

She laughed when he smiled at her. "Would you prefer I got off of you and sat five feet away?" She asked.

"No, I wasn't complaining." He tilted his face so his forehead and nose were touching hers.

"I was kidding, I'm not going anywhere." She felt Troy squeeze her tighter, so she tilted her head to the side. Troy did the same and she leaned into him as he pressed his mouth onto hers.

The two of them pulled even closer together. Troy's hands started moving around in Gabriella's hair as he kissed her. Gabriella smiled as she felt his tongue slide against her lips. She felt a lot of emotion in the kiss, but also felt a huge amount of physical pleasure, so much that she could sense the pulse in the middle of her waist area rapidly increasing, causing her to instinctivly press her waist against his and moan softly into his mouth.

Troy and Gabriella were now officially together, and they were ready to start the journey of a relationship.

**THE NEXT CHAPTER OF THIS STORY WILL BE OUT SOON, BUT NOW TROY AND GABRIELLA ARE TOGETHER! I HOPE YOU LIKE IT SO FAR. PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE I'LL BE UPDATING SOON AND IT WILL BE GETTING BETTER. AND PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW, I LOVE HEARING EVERYBODY'S THOUGHTS. BY THE WAY, TIFFANY, KARLA AND TIERRA ARE BASICALLY GABRIELLA'S FRENEMIES, IN CASE THERE WAS ANY CONFUSION ABOUT THAT. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS CHAPTER, AND I'LL UPDATE VERY SOON!**


	3. Confessions And Forgiveness

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER THREE**

Gabriella was at work at Starbucks. It was a light day for business, and the place was virtually empty. Her and Troy had been together for almost four days, since today was Wednesday. It was almost time for Gabriella's break, which overlapped Troy's for about five minutes. That's when he had been coming to see her.

"The rain's coming down." Stacy said at the register next to Gabriella.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be raining all day."

"I would think we'd be done with 'April Showers' by now."

Gabriella shrugged. "I don't really mind, I'm not outside a lot."

Stacy looked around. "Not really anyone here today. I count three people besides the employees and no one in line."

"That's weird for the time of day." Gabriella said. "This is usually the peak of business."

"Well, I guess people just aren't out for coffee or anything today. It's usually Monday and Tuesday that we get the most people. Later in the week it's pretty slow. Especially for our location."

"And not to mention the competitors."

Stacy laughed. "Well, they set themselves up on the other side of town. So that leaves us with only half the town population, and it's pretty small."

"As long as our salaries stay the same and we keep our jobs, I'm good with there not being a lot of customers." Gabriella said, smiling.

"Yeah, I like not having to run around all the time. It can get boring, but at least it's easy."

The rain started coming down harder. Gabriella listened to it pound on the roof. She wondered how long it was going to continue; it had been raining for two days straight.

She walked over to a chair near the back room and sat down, wanting to fall asleep. Usually the rain made her tired, and today was no different. Stacy had left a few minutes ago to go somewhere on her break, and Gabriella sat in a chair behind the registers. It was her and a few other customers and employees, but other than that the whole place was empty.

Gabriella heard the bell ring as the door opened. When she looked over, she smiled to see Troy. He smiled back at her and wiped his hair into place.

Gabriella walked over to him. "My God, you're soaked." She said, laughing.

"I'll dry."

"In ten days."

"Actually you'd be surprised how quickly it happens."

She shrugged. "You came through this torrential downpour to see me?"

"Yes I did. Worth it."

"Well I'm sorry I never go over there."

Troy shook his head. "It's fine, Target's full of people and it's big and busy and this is a more quiet and calm place so I like meeting you here."

"Well, I don't really care which one, but if you prefer here, that's fine. I'm just glad to see you because you didn't come yesterday and I didn't see you at all." She made a pretend sad face and Troy laughed.

"But we did text all afternoon."

"It's not the same." She said again in a sad tone as she made a puppy dog face.

"Stop it, you're going to make me mad at myself." Gabriella kept the expression on her face and Troy laughed harder.

"Sorry." She laughed with Troy and her face went back to normal.

She stepped out from behind the counter and Troy hugged her. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you."

"Me too." Gabriella said.

"Want to sit down somewhere?"

"Sure. Over here." Gabriella walked around a wall and into a smaller room with no one in it. "Check it out, this wall blocks everything. No one can see us."

"Yeah, we're on our own." Troy sat down in a booth and Gabriella scooted over and sat on his lap. Troy held her in the same position he held her in when they first sat down in the woods, with them facing the same direction and his arms around her stomach, her hands in his.

Troy rested his head on her left shoulder and leaned the side of his face against hers. "How have you been, brie?"

"Great. It feels like I can't even remember the last time I've been sad. That's mostly thanks to you."

He smiled. "I'm here for you."

"There's something you might want to know, though."

"What is it?"

"Well..." She started. "I've been with a lot of guys in the past couple months. Don't think I'm a slut, but I did sleep with a few of them, but I was always in a relationship when I did and I thought we were a lot further along than we actually were, but sometimes I guess they just thought I was easy to get in bed with for a night and then walk away from. Which I guess I was, but I've learned and I wanted to tell you because I don't want to go really far and then have you find out I used to be like that and dump me or think I never changed or that I'm cheating on you because I'm not and I won't. So whatever you want to do in reaction is your decision, but I just thought you needed to know that."

"Well, you made some mistakes, but never on purpose. I can understand that. You just slept with a bunch of different guys because you thought your relationship was something that it wasn't. That's not really your fault at all. You always intended for it to be for love, right?" Troy asked.

"Yeah."

"I can't be mad at you for that. I've slept with a few different women, always for the intention of love, just like why you did it. They weren't playing games with me and I wasn't playing games with them, but we just broke up normally each time. I never cheated on them and although the fact that I slept with them may make me seem worse, I really have good intentions, as do you, and I always had good intentions with them. But it just didn't work."

"But you do feel just like me, right? In the sense that you've gotten smarter about that and so have I? And neither one of us will make those mistakes again?"

He nodded. "Yes. I definitely know not to, now." He touched his nose to hers and their eyes were less than an inch apart. Troy kissed Gabriella on the mouth and she kissed him back. They slid into a more intimate, flowing kiss.

When they had finished, they sat in silence until Troy checked his phone. "I have to go back now."

Gabriella looked up at him. "Already?"

"Yeah, I don't want to either. But I'll..." He paused and looked around, like he was thinking. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Alright." Gabriella and Troy both stood up and walked towards the main room of the Starbucks. Troy kissed her on top of the head. "Bye, sweetheart."

"Bye."

They smiled at each other before Troy walked out the door. Gabriella was happy that she could clear things up with him, but she also wondered why he had paused before he said 'I'll talk to you later.'

* * *

It was now 9:45, that night, and Gabriella couldn't think about anything but Troy. She had already showered and brushed her teeth, and now she was watching TV in a light blue bathrobe. There was nothing worth watcing on, but she was just passing the time until she decided to go to bed.

When the show Gabriella was watching went to a commercial, she shut it off and put down the remote. She lifted the blanket off of her and walked over to the kitchen for water and noticed the moon was almost full, and that the night sky was perfectly clear, showing stars all across it. She smiled and set her glass down, then walked over to the window to look around.

This was one of the prettiest nights she had seen in a while. The rain had let up a couple hours ago and now she could see the stars and the moon for the first time in days. Gabriella sighed happily and looked around at the black sky, feeling it mesmerize her.

The doorbell rang suddenly, bringing her out of her thoughts. She wondered what someone would be at her door for at almost ten o'clock at night.

Gabriella walked to the front door and pulled her bathrobe tighter to make sure it was closed. She looked out the window when she got there and her eyes widened. She opened the door right away and stared. "Troy..."

Troy nodded silently and looked at her. "I couldn't stay away from you." He had a sweet, loving tone to his voice, one that she hadn't heard before.

Gabriella looked emotionally into his eyes. "Come inside."

He stepped slowly into her house and Gabriella closed the door behind him. Her heart started to beat faster and she noticed that the house was completely silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Troy turned around to face her, only inches away. They just stared at each other silently for a long time.

"Troy, I never expected this."

"I hope it's not too soon."

Gabriella shook her head gently. "It's not." She stood still for a few more seconds until slowly backing up, with Troy, into a corner. She pulled him against her and then Troy's mouth was covering hers. She moved her arms gently onto his neck and tilted her head up. Troy's arms circled around Gabriella's back as they stood in an intimate, gentle kiss. Gabriella whimpered and moved her mouth off of Troy's, keeping her lips softly touching his. "Troy, I'm getting firm." They stared at each other again until Gabriella reached for her waist and undid her robe. It fell to the ground, and she wasn't even wearing a nightgown underneath. She stood there with her body against him, in just a bra and panties.

Gabriella's heart was pounding. The house was dead silent and all she heard was both of their rapid breathing.

Troy was wearing just a t-shirt, which Gabriella pulled off. She stared at his chest and stomach and rested her forehead against his. Troy put his hand on her cheek and pulled her against him as he kissed her again. Gabriella felt something bulge into her thigh, and she pulled away from the kiss to look directly into Troy's eyes when she realized what it was. "Troy, let's go upstairs."

That night, Troy and Gabriella made love together for the first time. Troy talked to her about how much he loved her and made her feel like she was in a state of bliss. Gabriella responded just as enthusiastically and told him she felt the same. When they had no more energy left, they lay together silently and took turns gently kissing each other's mouths and lips. They were both so satisfied with the feelings between them.

It was almost midnight, and both of them were tired. "Gabriella?"

"Yes Troy?"

"I love you."

Gabriella smiled and closed her eyes. "I love you too."

"I want to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"You've told me how you aren't a very materialistic person, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I was wondering, since neither one of us really owns a lot, if this weekend you would want to pack up your stuff and I could drive you over to my house and we could live there together."

"You mean you want me to move in with you?"

"Yeah. I want us to be living together, I can't stand being away from you."

"Neither can I. I would love that. We would be living in the same house? Your house?"

"Yep."

Gabriella smiled and kissed Troy. "I would love to. I'll pack up tomorrow and this Saturday you can drive me over to your house and I'll unpack there. Then I'll be officially moved in and we'll be officially living together."

Troy smiled and nodded. "Okay, we have a plan."

Gabriella hugged Troy tighter and pictured them living together. It seemed right, even though they hadn't been together very long. She had no doubts that this was the right move. Troy and Gabriella really did love each other, and they were both so excited to live under the same roof. It was going to be amazing, and they couldn't wait.

**SO NEXT CHAPTER THEY'LL MOVE IN TOGETHER! I REALLY LIKE THE DIRECTION THIS STORY IS GOING IN. I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE IT TOO. I'LL START WORKING ON THE NEXT CHAPTER AS SOON AS I CAN. THIS STORY WILL BE GETTING BETTER SOON. PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT AND LEAVE A REVIEW, I LOVE HEARING PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS. THANK YOU, AND I'LL UPDATE SOON!**


	4. Moving In

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER FOUR**

Troy woke up and saw a sliver of sun on the bed. He looked down towards his nose and saw Gabriella's head leaning against his bare chest. She was still asleep. Troy smiled and moved his hand onto her head to stroke her hair. Last night had been amazing, and he was still getting used to the fact that Gabriella was moving in with him this weekend.

It was almost seven o'clock in the morning. Gabriella told him she wanted to be up by 7:30, so he promised that since he always woke up early that he would get her up if she still wasn't awake by then. Troy put both arms around Gabriella and pulled her up towards him so her face was inches from his. He smiled and kissed her, then took part of the bed comforter and wrapped it around her exposed shoulders and part of her face so she was completely wrapped in it. Then he pulled her more closely against him, kissing her forehead softly as he held her.

Ten minutes later, Gabriella stirred and her eyes started to open. As she stretched, she curled her head back and Troy smiled as he leaned in and kissed her underneath the chin, making her laugh loudly. She opened her eyes and smiled back at him before she scooted down away from the pillow to snuggle her face into Troy's neck.

He tucked his chin down so she was covered. "Good morning baby."

"Good morning. I love you."

"I love you too."

They lay there silently until 7:30, when Troy picked Gabriella up from the bed and pulled her into a sitting position. He nuzzled his head next to her neck and on her shoulder. "We have to get up now."

"No, I want to stay here." She whimpered quietly.

"We can spend tonight together again if you want."

"Alright but I feel like I want to do it again sooner than that because I'm sitting on your lap when we're both naked and that's making me really wet. But at the same time I don't want to be late."

"Well I have an idea that can fix both of those problems." Troy got up with Gabriella and walked into the bathroom with her, then closed the drain in the bathtub and turned on the hot water.

"Oh I think I know where this is going." Gabriella said, still waking up but laughing.

Thirty minutes later, they were stepping out of the tub together, laughing and holding hands. There was water all over the floor.

"That was genius. Not the same as doing it in a bed, but it still felt great." Gabriella said.

"Yeah, and we still got ready for today, so we won't be late. It's perfect."

* * *

A couple hours later, Gabriella was in Starbucks, talking with Stacy.

"Who was that guy you were with yesterday?"

Gabriella smiled. "His name is Troy Bolton. We've been together for almost a week."

"Are you with him for a serious relationship or just a fun-while-it-lasts thing?"

"No, it's serious. I've always tried to be serious, and although I screwed up a lot I never really did fun-while-it-lasted stuff."

Stacy shrugged. "So how serious is it?"

"It got pretty serious yesterday because I told him about my mistakes with other guys and it turns out that he made similar mistakes, but we both feel we're done with them."

"Well, that's good. How's it been going with him?"

"I'm packing my stuff tonight and moving in with him this weekend."

"Wow." She laughed. "I guess it is serious. So then I'm guessing you two have already..."

"What...slept together?"

Stacy nodded.

"Yeah, I know we haven't been together very long. But it felt right because of how open we were both being and I didn't want to wait any longer. He showed up at my house last night. When I opened the door and saw him standing there and realized why he was there I felt like he was Jesus, coming to save me, which isn't a huge exaggeration of what I actually felt."

"So basically, you didn't feel excited, you just felt complete? Like you just calmly let him in and felt like it was meant to happen?"

"Yeah, and then we kissed and it wasn't a heated kiss, it was just slow and sweet, even though we both knew what was about to happen. It felt perfect."

"Well, if you feel that way then you should move in with him, if you really feel like it's a long term relationship."

"I do feel that way, and yeah I'm excited."

Stacy smiled slowly. "Now that we've cleared up that you both want each other for love, can I just ask...how was it?"

Gabriella laughed, appalled. "Stacy!"

"Sorry, I'm just wondering."

"I already said we did it for love, not for anything about each other's bodies. But it did feel great."

"Okay. You know me, I ask for too much information all the time."

"I know."

Later, Stacy and the other staff left for their lunch break. Gabriella was almost alone, just like she had been yesterday. She thought about last night with Troy and started getting excited again. She remembered the way everything felt and what they'd done, and now it was hard to focus on anything else. Her breathing sped up as she thought more, wanting the same sensation again. She looked around quickly to see if Troy had come in yet.

Gabriella waited for about twenty more minutes until she remembered that Troy had told her this morning that he wouldn't be able to come today because he and some other employees needed to help with something about the back shelves, so they had to stay there on their break. Gabriella sighed impatiently and decided she couldn't take her mind off of last night and how much she wanted it again. So she walked quickly into the storage room, and found that thankfully there was no one there. She closed the door behind her and locked herself in.

The room was only about twenty feet long and twenty feet wide. The lights were dim, but the sun coming in the windows made the place brighter. The shelves were blocking the back part of the room and there was no chair, so Gabriella sat on the floor and leaned against a wall. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and checked her phone to see if she had enough time left in her break. There were only five minutes left, but she knew that should be enough. Even if it wasn't, she knew she wasn't going to walk away.

Gabriella's heart beat even faster. Feeling a little guilty, she reached for her pants and pulled them down to her thighs. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't do this anymore. She had even thrown out her vibrator. But as she thought about Troy she became overwhelmed by hormones and couldn't resist.

When her hand was far enough in, she tried to satisfy herself while still keeping the noise level to a minimum since there were other employees ten feet from the door, but when she was finished she forgot and moaned loudly. Feeling nervous that someone heard, she pulled her hand out as fast as she could.

There was a knock on the door. "Is someone in here?" It was Stacy.

"Yes." Gabriella said in a weak, shaky voice, barely able to talk because of what she'd just felt.

"Gabriella? What are you doing with the door locked?"

"Nothing." She pulled her pants back up and tried to calm her breathing before opening the door.

"What were you doing?" Stacy asked quietly.

"Nothing."

"You went back there, locked the door and now you're out of breath. You weren't doing anything?"

"Nope."

"Troy's not here?"

"No, I was alone."

"Oh." Stacy thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "Oh, I get it."

Gabriella tilted her head, confused.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. You think you're the only one working here who needs some relief once in a while? It's fine. You don't even want to know how often I do that. But I always wait until I get home." She laughed. "Sorry if I have no filter today."

She nodded. "Alright, well I couldn't wait that long."

"It's fine. Gotta do what you gotta do."

Gabriella laughed with embarrassment and shrugged. "Okay, then. Let's get back to work?"

"Alright, but first you need to wash your hands. I don't think any customer would want to touch a cup that you've touched after what you just did."

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me."

Stacy laughed. "No problem."

* * *

When Gabriella got home, she started packing everything she needed for when she moved in with Troy. There were two full suitcases of clothes, which was pretty much her entire closet. Then she packed a few small bags of stuff like cosmetics and dental things. She walked around the house a couple times to see if there was anything else that she wanted to pack. As Troy had said, she wasn't a very materialistic person. There were no objects in her house that weren't necessary that she really wanted to bring. There were barely any objects at all.

Gabriella put the suitcases and bags into the corner of her bedroom. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Troy.

"Hello?"

"Hey Troy. Guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm all ready to move in this weekend. Everything's packed and I'm all set. It's not a lot of things, just a couple suitcases and some bags of stuff."

"Oh, it's fine. Bring whatever you want. When we're living together I don't want you to feel like you have to live or act differently or more reserved than how you do now. I don't want to make you feel like I'm trying to get power over you or something just because it's my house." Troy said.

"No, I won't think that. I just don't have a lot of stuff that I need or want to bring."

"Well if that's the amount of stuff you want to bring, that's alright. I'm just really excited to move in together."

Gabriella smiled. "I know, me too. It'll be great."

* * *

SATURDAY

Gabriella was in Troy's car. Her things were in the trunk and Troy was driving her back to his house.

"It's hard to believe this will be official in less than twenty minutes."

"That we're living together?"

"Yeah." Gabriella said. "I'm so excited."

"Me too." Troy turned into his neighborhood and drove down the street. "It happened so quickly."

"Do you mean we rushed it?"

"No, definitely not. I'm saying it's been a week and we're already living together, and the reason for it is that we can't stand being apart. I think after only a week, that's great." Troy said, smiling.

Gabriella nodded and smiled back. "Yeah, I think we're definitely going to last."

"We've got a lot of chemistry."

They pulled up into his driveway and slowed down to go in the garage. Troy turned off the engine and smiled as they both got out of the car and opened the trunk.

"So I'll carry these suitcases and could you get the bags?" Troy asked.

"That's a lot for you to carry, the bags are pretty small. I can take a suitcase."

"No, it's okay." He walked to the door and opened it with his arm. Gabriella followed behind him and set the bags on top of the suitcases on the floor. Troy walked back out to close the doors to his car. "Everything's in the house."

"You know, Troy, I just had a thought."

"What?"

"Should I bring my car back here? Your garage can fit it and we usually leave work at different times, so I should probably drive it over."

"Oh yeah, so then one of us isn't waiting for the other person if they stay at work longer than normal. Which we both do sometimes."

"Yeah." Gabriella said. "I can't believe neither of us thought of that." She laughed.

"Well then we have to go get your car. I'll walk with you back to your house and we'll drive over in it."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

They both looked out the window in disbelief as it started raining. "Classic." Troy said, laughing. "We should unpack your stuff while we wait for this to let up, then we can go."

"Alright." Gabriella smiled. Troy picked up a suitcase and she took the other. "Leave the bags there." She said. "We'll get them after this."

"Okay, I'll show you where you can put these." Troy took her upstairs. He walked into his bedroom and they set the suitcases down on the floor. "I don't use the left side of this closet at all. There should be enough room." He opened the door and Gabriella looked inside.

"Oh yeah, there's definitely enough room."

They put Gabriella's clothes there, and ten minutes later, the rain was letting up and her entire wardrobe was out of the suitcase and on hangers in the closet.

Troy took the empty suitcases, put them in a corner of the closet and closed the door. They both walked downstairs.

Gabriella looked at the bads. "Where should I take these?" She asked.

Troy shrugged. "Depends what's in them."

"I kind of threw everything in, and it's all unorganized and stuff. So I'll just take things where you tell me and by the time I'm all unpacked, hopefully the rain will have let up." They walked upstairs, since most things in there were stored in a bathroom.

They set the bags down and Gabriella opened one. "Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, Listerine, and dental stuff like that I guess all goes in the bathroom?"

"You're a genius," Troy said, laughing. He opened an empty cabinet and Gabriella put those things in. She went back to the bag and pulled out different kinds of makeup.

Troy thought about it and opened another cabinet, closer to the window. When she'd put everything neatly into it, Gabriella went back to her bag.

"Oh, Troy?" She started blushing and looked a little embarrassed.

"What?"

"Where should I put these?"

Troy laughed as she held up three boxes of tampons. "In here." He opened a cabinet underneath the sink and Gabriella put the boxes in an empty space, then walked back to another bag. "Sorry if seeing that was awkward."

"It's fine." Troy said. "After last night, there's nothing I haven't seen."

Gabriella turned around and smiled. "Really, Troy?" They both laughed.

Fifteen minutes later, Gabriella was completely unpacked. Everything in her bags and her suitcases had been put away.

"Well, we're all set." Troy said. "The rain's stopped, so do you want to go get your car now?"

"Yeah, sure. It's not that far and I'd like to walk with you."

"Okay." He smiled, put Gabriella's empty bags in the cabinet and took her hand.

"So I'm all unpacked?"

"Yes you are. After we get your car back in the garage we can sit down and watch TV or something because you'll be officially moved in with me."

"Alright, that feels great to think about. I'm so excited!"

"Me too." He kissed her on top of the head as they walked downstairs and out the door to get to her car.

When they got back, they parked Gabriella's car in the garage and walked back into the house. Gabriella and Troy were now officially living together. They lay down on the couch and Troy spread a blanket over them.

"I love you Troy."

"I love you too." He pulled Gabriella on top of him and wrapped his arms around her. She moved her head so it was under his chin and against his neck. They stayed on the couch, cuddling under the blanket.

Troy thought about the future ahead of them. "You know, we're really lucky to find each other at just the right time."

Gabriella nodded. "Yeah, I'm confident in our chances of having a lasting relationship. This is the start of something great."

"And now that we're officially living together, I feel even better about it. I'm so excited for what the future will bring."

"Me too." Gabriella said. "We're a pretty new couple, so we have to make sure we don't go too fast, but I really think we're perfect together."

"So do I. And you're right about how we shouldn't go too fast, I don't want us to break up because there's pressure that we put on ourselves to be too devoted to each other."

"Yeah, from here we should just take things as they come. If we do that, I'm sure we'll always be perfect together."

Troy nodded and kissed her on the forehead. "You're right. We'll just have to let things play out naturally, and then from there we'll decide what should happen next."

**I'LL TRY TO MAKE NEXT CHAPTER MORE EXCITING, I KNOW THAT WAS KIND OF A BORING CHAPTER. BUT ANYWAY, NOW GABRIELLA AND TROY ARE LIVING TOGETHER! I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY SO FAR. PLEASE FOLLOW IT IF YOU DO, AND LEAVE A REVIEW! I LOVE HEARING FROM EVERYBODY! ALSO, I DON'T THINK I'LL BE ABLE TO UPDATE FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS BECAUSE I'LL BE BUSY WITH OTHER THINGS, NOT RELATED TO THIS WEBSITE. BUT I'LL GET BACK TO THIS AS SOON AS I CAN! BY THE WAY, I HAVE ANOTHER STORY THAT I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON. IT'S CALLED HELP ME GET UP AND IT'S ABOUT THEM IN HIGH SCHOOL. I WON'T BE ABLE TO UPDATE THAT FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS EITHER, BUT THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS OF THAT ARE ALREADY OUT AND I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU WENT TO CHECK IT OUT! ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY SO FAR, AND I'LL UPDATE AGAIN IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS. THANK YOU!**


	5. A Cry For Help

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER FIVE**

Stacy looked at her watch. She only had another hour until it was five o'clock and she could leave. There was a bad thunderstorm outside and almost nobody was in the Starbucks, which was a pretty typical day so far that month. Troy had been coming in a lot, and two weeks had passed since he and Gabriella moved in together.

She realized she'd had way too much to drink and looked around, figuring no one would be ordering anything anytime soon, so she headed towards the bathroom.

There was a voice on the other side of the door. "Don't come in."

Stacy stopped. "Gabriella, is that you?"

"Yes, don't come in." She repeated.

Stacy shook her head. "I'm coming in." She pushed the door open and walked inside to see Gabriella run inside a stall.

"Gabriella, is something wrong?"

"No. Go away."

"What are you doing?"

Gabriella locked the stall. "Why do you care? Why would anyone care? Get out."

"Well, I did come in here to use the bathroom."

"Then use it and get out."

"Sorry, I can't. Not until you tell me what's going on."

"Nothing's going on."

"Then why won't you talk to me? Are you mad at me?"

"No."

Stacy sighed loudly. "I don't want to play twenty questions. Gabriella, you're my friend. Please tell me what's going on, I know there's something wrong."

There was silence from inside the stall as Gabriella thought about it. Then the door clicked and opened. Gabriella stepped out and Stacy gasped.

"Gabriella, what happened?" Stacy looked to see tears streaming down Gabriella's face.

She put her palm over her face to hide the tears. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know."

Stacy stuttered with confusion. "Did something happen?"

"No."

"Did Troy do something? Or say something?"

"No."

"Did you guys break up?"

"No, this doesn't involve Troy."

"Then who or what does it involve?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't know."

"Well, I doubt you're crying for no reason."

Gabriella shook her head. "I don't know why I'm crying. I've been randomly crying at times for the past few months and I don't even know why. Maybe it's because I feel like I'm worth nothing. I just get sad all of a sudden and then I cry."

"You're not worth nothing. Do you think you're depressed?"

"No, there are a lot of times when I'm happy. I can be really happy sometimes and then really sad. It's not bipolar, it's just that some days I cry for no real reason."

"Does Troy know?"

"Yeah, we're living together, remember? About a week after I moved in with him he figured out after seeing me cry a few times that sometimes I just do it all of a sudden and I told him I don't even know why, which I don't."

"What did he say?" Stacy asked.

"He asked me if I wanted to see someone about it and get some kind of therapy he told me about, I forget what it's called. When I said I didn't want to, he told me that he would pay for all of it, no matter what the cost, just because he couldn't stand seeing me cry."

Stacy laughed. "You found a great boyfriend."

Gabriella smiled through her tears. "I know, and I'm so thankful for it. But I still told him that I didn't want to get therapy." She gained control of her breathing and slowly stopped crying.

"Well, don't feel hopeless because you have Troy to talk to, and when you can't talk to him because you're both at work, you have me."

Gabriella laughed quietly. "My loyal co-worker."

Stacy smiled. "That's me."

* * *

Gabriella drove into Troy's neighborhood to head back home. She still felt sad and honestly couldn't figure out the reason for it. It definitely wasn't Troy. He made her feel happier than she'd felt in years.

The rain was pouring down and Gabriella could barely see the road ahead of her. There was constant thunder and lightning overhead, making noise every few seconds. This was definitely the worst thunderstorm so far this year.

It was 5:30, and Gabriella was relieved that her work day was over. It wasn't that she hated it, it was just that she'd been so tired.

Her car pulled up towards Troy's house and she parked at the top of the driveway like she'd been doing since they moved in together, and made sure that there was enough room for him to get his car into the garage.

Gabriella ran towards the house with no umbrella and opened the door with a key as quickly as she could. The rain was coming down so hard that when she got inside she decided to use a towel to dry off.

After closing the door behind her and walking into the house, she realized that Troy wasn't home yet. Gabriella walked over to the couch and lay down, listening to the pouring rain outside. She reached for the remote and turned the TV on. The weather was being showed, so she stayed to see what was going to happen with the rain.

"And we are tracking more of this thunderstorm, it will be overhead until tomorrow at about noon. It's definitely going to be severe until then, at which time it'll start letting up."

Gabriella shut the TV off and sighed, putting the remote back on the couch. She felt another urge to cry building up inside her. She was beginning to feel scared by her random crying. It felt awful, and she was worried about what would happen if she couldn't get over it, and maybe she would eventually be ruined if she didn't stop. It was almost as if she was, metaphorically, on the Titanic. And if she didn't get in a lifeboat soon, she would sink. Gabriella felt sick to her stomach when she thought about it that way, so she focused on holding in her tears and closed her eyes.

She had been so tired recently, so she fell asleep quickly on the couch. Troy came home fifteen minutes later and walked over to sit next to her. He smiled and lay down behind her so he could wrap his arms around her like he did at night.

Gabriella stirred a while later, waking them both up. Troy kissed her on top of the head and looked at the clock. It was 6:20.

"Hey sweetheart."

"Hi, Gabriella. How did today go?"

"I managed to hold myself together until the end of the day, then I cried again."

Troy nodded. "I'm sorry. If you figure out what's going on to keep making you sad please talk to me about it."

"I will. But I don't really know right now, I just feel helpless."

Troy looked at her sympathetically and wrapped his arms tighter around her. "You have people willing to help you."

"I know, but it's just hard to feel happy and it's getting so much worse. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to just freak out."

* * *

An hour later, Troy had gotten up but Gabriella was still lying on the couch. She heard Troy shut off the shower water. The storm was still going and she was feeling trapped again. Gabriella felt a sudden rush of energy and shot up off the couch, wondering what was wrong with her. She was feeling really scared now and she wanted to scream. She paced quickly around the room and felt like jumping out of her skin. This was the worst that she'd felt so far in the couple months that she'd been like this, and it was unbearable.

Troy was upstairs, drying off from his shower and getting dressed. He walked over to the closet, hoping that Gabriella was going to start feeling better. He was worried about her and if it kept going like this, he was going to have to take her to therapy, whether she wanted it or not. When he was dressed he fixed his hair and put everything back. He sighed and closed the cabinets. A few more minutes went by before Troy heard a scream from downstairs.

Troy looked up, startled. He listened and realized she was also crying. "Gabriella?"

There was no answer.

"Gabriella! Are you okay?" He ran out of the room and towards the stairs. The crying was coming from the kitchen.

"Stop, don't come over!"

Troy ignored her and ran into the kitchen, but stopped and almost dropped dead. His breath caught in his throat. He spoke quietly. "Gabriella, please stop. Right now."

"No!"

Troy felt a rush of emotions and ran over to her. She had a knife in her hand and was slashing it across her left arm. She was bleeding onto the floor. Troy tried to take it from her but she turned away and ran it across her arm again, leaving another wound.

"Gabriella! Stop!" Troy reached around her and pulled the knife out of her hands. He threw it across the kitchen and it landed on the counter. Gabriella tried to shove her way by him to get to it. He put his arms out and wouldn't let her by. "Gabriella!"

She stopped pushing and fell back against the wall, crying harder than ever. Troy looked at her bleeding arm, at a loss for words. It seemed to be getting worse, and she was losing a lot of blood.

"Gabriella, get in the car."

"No." She said, starting to sound tired and oblivious.

"Yes, you don't have a choice. You have to. Look how much blood your losing. We need to go to the emergency room."

She closed her eyes and whimpered, gently shaking her head. Troy ignored her and put paper towels over Gabriella's arm and walked her carefully to the garage, then helped her into his car.

He turned on the engine, drove out of the driveway and out of the neighborhood, seeing that she was still bleeding badly, so he drove as quickly as he could through the pouring rain towards the nearest emergency room. She seemed to be half asleep.

"Gabriella, stay alert. I love you. Please tell me what made you do that."

"I don't know." She said as she cried. "I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm so scared. I just feel like I'm worthless and I was about to go crazy and I needed to do something."

Troy felt like he was about to cry. "Well just hang in there, alright? I'll get you to the emergency room and they'll take care of you. Put your arm up on the dashboard so some of the blood stays in."

"I haven't looked at it closely yet. Is it that bad?"

"No, don't look!"

Gabriella turned her eyes down to her arm and screamed, startling Troy and almost making him crash the car. She started sobbing again. "I didn't mean to do this much, I got carried away!"

"You're going to be fine, just put your arm on the dashboard!"

She quickly pulled her arm out of her lap and threw it horizontally onto the dashboard. "It's starting to really hurt! Hurry!"

"I'm going. I'm hurrying." Troy looked around frantically, barely able to see through the rain. "Oh no."

"What?"

"I just missed the turn!"

"What? How much time does that cost us!?"

"I don't know, I have no idea where to go from here."

"Well, we can't get stuck here, look ahead!"

Troy looked down the road and saw the traffic was at a standstill. He knew Gabriella couldn't wait that long. He saw a fairly empty road on the right, but he was four lanes away from the turn and going too fast. But they couldn't get stuck in this.

"Gabriella, brace yourself." He swerved hard to the right and the tires screeched. The car slid along the road and car horns blared on all sides of them. Gabriella screamed and Troy pulled the wheel all the way over. They ran over the curb and a patch of grass, narrowly missing a telephone pole. The car was now sideways, and it tilted off the ground. They fell off the curb on the other side and Troy swung the wheel hard to the left, evening the car out, and they were now safely on the empty road.

"I just saw my life flash before my eyes." Gabriella said.

"Me too. I have no idea where we're going, we'll have to get back on the road and head back to the turn I missed." He drove down the road for a mile before he came to an overpass that took them back to the road they were on.

"This is it." He turned left and drove down another street.

"Are we going in the right direction?" Gabriella asked.

"Yes, the emergency room is less than a block away. We're almost there sweetheart, hang in there."

"Okay, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. I'll get my arm healed."

"You'll get your arm healed." Troy said reassuringly. "It shouldn't be a problem. Just relax."

Gabriella sat there, moaning in pain. "We're here, right?"

"Yes, this is it." Troy pulled up in front of the door to see a sign that said No Valet Parking. So he swung the wheel and drove into the parking lot, trying to find a space.

"Troy, remember that I love you. Don't think you caused any of this and don't think that you caused me to want to hurt myself. You didn't. There was nothing anyone could do. I've just recently been feeling like I'm a piece of dirt, I don't even know why. But when I'm around you, you make me feel happier and more special than I can remember ever feeling. I love you. Please don't give up on me."

"I won't. I won't ever give up. I'm going to help you as much as I can and I won't stop until you're back to your normal self." Troy looked at her and saw her eyes were mostly closed and she was breathing heavily. He pulled into a parking space, close to the emergency room entrance, and turned the car engine off.

He looked at Gabriella's arm. Even though she had it in a good horizontal position, she was still bleeding badly. Troy's heart broke when he thought of the panic and confusion inside her head that could make her want to do that. He knew she was terrified about why she had urges to do things like this and it was devastating to know that the woman he was in love with thought she was worthless. He was going to do whatever it took to bring her back to normal, and if that meant spending every dollar he had on therapy for her, he was going to do it.

**SO NOW THIS STORY HAS SOME DRAMA IN IT! I THOUGHT IT WAS A LITTLE BORING BEFORE SO I DECIDED TO THICKEN THE PLOT BY PUTTING IN THIS PROBLEM THAT GABRIELLA HAS. IT KIND OF MAKES SENSE BECAUSE SHE HAS SEEMED PRETTY HOPELESS SO FAR IN THIS STORY. SORRY IF THIS CHAPTER WAS A LITTLE DISTURBING. BUT GABRIELLA WILL GET THERAPY AND I PROMISE THINGS WILL EVENTUALLY GET BETTER! I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY SO FAR, PLEASE FOLLOW IT IF YOU DO BECAUSE THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE OUT SOON. ALSO, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! I LOVE HEARING WHAT PEOPLE THINK. THANKS, AND I'LL UPDATE SOON!**


	6. The Emergency Room

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER SIX**

Troy opened the door on his side of the car and walked quickly around to Gabriella. He opened her door and leaned over her. "Gabriella, everything is going to be okay. Let me help you out and they'll take care of you."

Gabriella continued crying. "I can't believe I've come to this."

"Sweetheart, you're going to get better, both physically and emotionally. And it starts here. So do you want to get out of the car now?" Troy tried to keep his voice quiet and calm so she didn't become any more scared than she already was.

"Okay. Help me out."

"You'll have to keep your arm in that position, okay?"

She nodded and turned to face the open door, keeping her left arm horizontal. "I don't even want to look at it."

"You don't have to. Just give me your right hand and I'll help you out."

Gabriella outstretched her arm and Troy took her hand, then slipped his other arm around her back to help her out.

"This is going to leave a scar on my arm. It'll be a bunch of ugly scratches there forever."

Troy shook his head and kissed her forehead as she stood up. "I'm sure it'll fade. The best thing you can do now is just relax."

"I can't relax. It's 7:45 at night in the pouring rain and I'm at the emergency room for something I did to myself on purpose. There's something wrong with me, it's so scary." She started to cry more and buried her face in Troy's chest.

"There's nothing wrong with you, you're just confused. That can be fixed. You'll be back to your normal self once you go to a therapist. Everything will be fine, I'll make sure of it." Troy closed and locked the car door, then walked through the rain with her into the emergency room.

When they got inside, half of the seats were open. Troy checked them in and walked Gabriella over to the corner, where no one was within ten feet of them.

"Alright, let's sit down here. Keep your arm horizontal."

Gabriella nodded and kept crying silently. Troy looked at her sympathetically and wrapped both arms around her, pulling her body into his and gently kissing her cheek and ears. "You'll be okay. Keep that as the number one thought in your mind, alright?"

"Okay." She whispered quietly.

Troy looked in her tear-filled eyes again and he felt heartbroken by how fragile she was. He pulled her as tightly against him as he could and she tucked her face under his chin and into his neck.

"Tell me everything will be okay again."

Troy smiled, glad that he had finally found a way to comfort her. "Everything will be okay. I'm going to make sure of that and I won't stop until it is. When they're fixing your arm, I'll look at my phone and try to find therapy for you. I'm sure I'll find something. You will be okay."

Gabriella nodded and her crying started to slow down. Troy wiped the remaining tears off her face and stroked her hair.

Fifteen minutes later, a nurse walked into the waiting room. "Montez?"

Gabriella looked up nervously but Troy placed his hand on her back. "It's okay." He whispered quietly. "Let's go."

Gabriella tried to hide her arm as she walked but still keep it parallel to the ground. The nurse looked at it and winced, leading them both down a hallway and to a room with an open door.

"Right in here." She said. Gabriella and Troy walked inside.

"So I understand that your arm is the problem here?"

Gabriella nodded nervously and sat down on a cushioned bench next to Troy.

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

The nurse nodded. "Alright, well that's good, we know to just isolate that as the problem now. Is it broken?" She took out a notepad and started writing on it.

"No."

"Any pain in the bone, wrist, hand, shoulder, tissue or ligament?"

"No."

"Is there any pain in your body related to this injury, besides the bleeding?"

"No, that's all it is. Just bleeding."

"Okay, that's good. So in that case it should be a relatively easy injure to take care of. How did it happen?"

Gabriella tensed up and looked down at the floor, squirming uncomfortably in her seat.

The nurse looked at her, confused. "Was it related to anything against the law? Like assault?"

"No, nothing illegal happened, no one attacked me."

"Then just out of curiosity, can I ask what caused it? Because it's bleeding very badly."

Gabriella sat there, motionless as a statue except for her heavy breathing.

Troy spoke up. "She knows, she doesn't want to look at it. I don't think she wants to say, either."

"Okay, well a doctor will be in shortly to take care of you. In the meantime, you and your husband should wait in here."

"Oh...okay, yeah." Gabriella said, smiling slightly and looking back at her feet.

When the nurse walked out of the room, Troy smiled also. "We're good together."

Gabriella laughed and leaned against him. "We are. So good, apparently, that she thinks we're married."

Troy nodded and laughed also, then kissed her on top of the head. "I'll try to see what I can find." He pulled out his phone and started looking for a possible therapist while they waited for the doctor.

Ten minutes later, the doctor entered, a woman who looked to be about sixty years old. She set down the same clipboard that the nurse had written on. "So what's your name?" She asked, looking at Gabriella.

"Gabriella Montez."

"Okay, well Gabriella, the solution here is obviously that we need to clean up your arm and stop the bleeding by covering it completely in a wrap bandage, which will also protect it. My guess is that you'll need it for about two to three weeks."

"That's it?" Gabriella asked.

"Well, basically the problem here is that you have a bunch of really bad scrapes on your arm. When we clean up the blood, it'll look a lot better. Trust me. And then from there if you keep the bandage on it constantly, then it should take only two or three weeks. This is because since they are fairly deep cuts, it'll take one and a half to two weeks for them to be shallow enough that they're just the normal, everyday scrapes. When that happens, they'll then be completely, one-hundred percent protected by scabs, at which time they will be healed and protected enough that the bandage no longer serves a purpose and you will be able to take it off. Which will be in two to three weeks. And from there you don't have to worry about them, and the skin will start coming back like it always does when people have scabs."

Gabriella nodded. "How much will come back? In other words, will my arm have scars on it?"

"That depends on how deep the cuts are. They aren't so deep that they'll leave big ugly scars on your arm, but at the same time, some of them may leave tiny pink lines that never go away. But don't worry, that will only happen in the deepest areas of the deepest cuts. Most of your scrapes look shallow enough that they'll be able to heal completely, but I unfortunately do see some scrapes that look deep enough to leave a scar. But there will only be a few tiny ones, which will be, as I said before, thin pink lines about half a foot long, but they will barely even be visible."

Gabriella looked down at the floor like she was about to cry again. Troy looked at her and squeezed her hand tightly, pulling her back into him with his arm. "They won't even be visible." He said.

"But I'll always be reminded when I look at it."

"After therapy, the memory won't be nearly as bad as it seems." Troy said. "Just hang in there, okay? Everything will be alright."

The doctor put down the notepad and looked back at them. "Okay Gabriella, I'm going to need you and your husband to come with me. That is your husband, right?"

Troy and Gabriella both laughed again and Gabriella shook her head. "No, actually he's my boyfriend."

"Oh!" The doctor laughed, looking surprised and a little embarrassed. "Well, I'm sorry but I just assumed you were married. You two look perfect together and obviously care a lot about each other."

Troy and Gabriella both smiled and nodded as the doctor led them out into the hall.

They entered a larger room with half the lights turned out. "Gabriella, you can sit down here, and I'm going to need your boyfriend to sit over there." She pointed to a seat near the corner of the room, about fifteen feet from where Gabriella sat down. Troy walked over and took his phone out, then continued his search for a therapist.

The doctor turned to face Gabriella. "Okay, what I'm going to need you to do here is just sit still with your arm on this table. It looks like you've cut open a couple important veins so you're still bleeding a little and I'm going to try to make this quick. I'm going to wash your arm and then just put a wrap bandage on you that stretches from a couple inches below your elbow to your wrist."

Gabriella nodded and stretched out her arm. The doctor covered Gabriella's arm in a soapy liquid and then gently wiped and blotted until her cuts were clean and her skin had no excess blood on it. Then, she took a long bandage and started working her way up Gabriella's arm until she had almost reached her elbow. She cut the end of the bandage and clipped it down on both ends so it went from an inch short of her wrist to an inch short of her elbow.

"Is it too tight?"

"No." Gabriella said. "Wouldn't that cause a problem with circulation?"

"Yes, so you have to be sure it's not too tight."

"It feels good."

"Is it too loose?"

"No, it'll stay on."

"Okay, then it looks like you're good to go. Any questions?"

"No."

"Alright, well good luck with the healing process."

"Thank you." Gabriella stood up and looked at her bandage in disbelief. Had she really done this to herself? As she thought about it she felt herself wanting to cry again.

Ten minutes later, Troy and Gabriella were walking through the parking lot in the rain again. It was 9:00 now, and completely dark outside.

Troy unlocked the doors and walked around to Gabriella's side to help her in. He opened the door for her and she climbed inside, fighting back tears. Troy got in his side, then closed and locked the doors, glad to be inside the car and out of the rain. He leaned over and kissed her slowly on the mouth, whispering to her as he did. "I'm so sorry Gabriella."

Gabriella didn't even try to hold back anymore. She wrapped her arms tightly around Troy and started sobbing into his shoulder, unable to control herself.

Troy hugged her as tightly as he could and they stayed like that for five minutes until Gabriella calmed down. "Gabriella, we're going home now, alright? We're going home."

Gabriella nodded and leaned back in her seat. Troy turned the car on and drove out of the parking lot towards their house.

The entire drive home, Gabriella held her face in her hands and wiped any tears that came out. Troy kept his hand on her lap and whispered comforting words to her on the way back.

When they got back to their house, Troy helped her out of the car again and walked her inside. Gabriella looked back at the counter and stared, without even turning any lights on.

"What is it?" Troy asked. He turned and saw she was staring at the knife she'd used. Gabriella looked at it in silence for another few seconds before Troy heard her start breathing heavily. She broke out sobbing again and ran upstairs into the bedroom. Troy ran over to the counter and washed the knife off with water in the sink, then hid it in the dishwasher so she didn't have to see it again. Then he ran up the stairs into the bedroom and closed the door behind them, then walked over to her without turning on the light.

Troy climbed onto the bed, where Gabriella was lying face down on her stomach. He crawled over and hugged her as tightly as he could, putting his face in her hair.

"Gabriella, your arm will heal and I found a therapist."

"Already?" She asked, without pulling her face out of the covers.

"Yeah, there's a woman right near here. She has some empty spaces on her schedule so tomorrow I'm going to reserve those for you, okay?"

She nodded into the covers. "I can't believe this has happened. I can't believe I need a therapist. That makes me feel like there's something wrong with me."

"Sweetheart, there's nothing wrong with you. You're just confused and need to have somebody talk to you so you can get back to your normal self again. There's nothing wrong with that." He said, reaching underneath her stomach and turning her so she was on her back, underneath him. He slipped his hand underneath her shirt and started to tug. "You're the most amazing girl I've ever met. Honestly. I have never felt so in love before and I know it's simply because we're right for each other." He pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor.

Gabriella nodded, smiled slightly and wiped her tears away. "Now you're going to show me?"

Troy laughed. "If this is what it takes to show you how much I care about you, yes."

"I already know. I could see in how you were acting about the emergency room and about the therapy that you really love me. And that makes me so happy. I love you the same way and I'm thrilled to to say it."

Troy lowered his nose onto hers and reached around her back. "Hold onto me, okay?"

Gabriella nodded. "Why?"

Troy kissed her and pulled her into a sitting position. "So I can take you under." He pulled her towards the pillows and lifted up the covers for her. She smiled and crawled under with him.

Troy climbed on top of Gabriella. "So I'll get you to therapy soon, your arm will heal and everything will be okay."

Gabriella nodded. "Thank you. I love you."

"I love you too." Troy lowered himself down on top of her and started kissing her mouth.

"I feel like you won't like sex as much tonight though because I've been crying so much and my face is all blotchy."

Troy shook his head slowly and looked at her silently for a few seconds. "You're still beautiful."

Gabriella's heart melted and she smiled from ear to ear for the first time that day. "Thank you Troy."

Troy made love to Gabriella again that night. It was sweet, gentle and slow, and Gabriella felt so much better about her relationship with Troy and her chances of getting back to normal. It was an amazing end to a horrible day, and she knew that whenever she had a bad day, she had Troy to go to and he would always make things better. Now, all she had to do was hope, because she knew Troy would get her to therapy on a regular basis, as much as he could, and Gabriella was hopeful that she would get back to normal as soon as possible.

**SO NOW GABRIELLA'S GOING TO START GETTING BETTER! AND I PROMISE THAT AS THERAPY GRADUALLY MAKES HER BETTER AGAIN, HER AND TROY WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE IN LOVE. I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY SO FAR, PLEASE FOLLOW IT IF YOU DO, BECAUSE THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE OUT SOON. AND PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW, I LOVE HEARING WHAT PEOPLE THINK! THANKS, AND I'LL UPDATE SOON!**


	7. Therapy

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER SEVEN**

Gabriella stood self consciously in Starbucks, noticing every glance from customers and co-workers. She felt embarrassed about her bandage and was hoping nobody would bring it up.

But when Stacy was working next to her, she kept looking over at Gabriella. It was getting stressful and she hoped Troy would be in soon.

But when Stacy had a free minute, she didn't hesitate to ask. "Hey Gabriella?" She said, walking over to her. "What happened to your arm?"

Gabriella felt her heart start to beat faster. "It got cut." She said nervously.

"How?"

"I don't really want to say."

"Did you run by a thorn bush or something?"

"No."

"I see another twenty questions game coming. Please just tell me what happened."

Gabriella looked around and walked over to Stacy, leading her towards the storage room. "You're going to be a little shocked."

Stacy laughed. "It's fine, just tell me."

"Remember how I was having problems with random sadness and all?"

"Yeah."

"Well I kind of went a little crazy and I...I don't want to say."

She turned to walk away and Stacy put her hand on her shoulder. "No, you've already told me that, just finish. Please?"

Gabriella sighed and looked at the ground, speaking quietly. "I took a knife to my arm."

Stacy gasped and her eyes widened. "What!?"

Gabriella looked around frantically and felt herself about to cry again. "I don't know, please don't get worked up."

"Sorry. Why did you do that?"

"I don't know, I felt like I was about to scream so I did it. But Troy took me to the emergency room and this weekend I'm going to therapy for the first time."

"Okay, good. You'll get better, don't worry. Any time you need to talk to me, you can. You have my number, text me if you need to. And you can talk to me here."

"Thank you but I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright, well just remember that."

She nodded and they walked back into the main room. Stacy turned around when she looked ahead and smiled. "Gabriella, he's here."

Gabriella looked to the left where Stacy was pointing and her face lit up. "Troy!" She ran over to him at full speed and he laughed, bracing himself as she jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his back. "Troy, I missed you! I'm so happy to see you, I love you."

"Well, that's a good welcome. I'm happy to see you and I love you too." He kissed her on the mouth and she responded enthusiastically, not caring that everyone was now watching them.

Troy finished and looked at her. "You want to go back there again?" He turned his head to the same empty room that no one ever sat in.

"Sure, let's go." Gabriella walked happily to the back of the Starbucks with him. "My break just started a minute ago." She said.

"Then I timed it perfectly." He sat down in a booth with her and they wrapped their arms around each other.

Gabriella's phone beeped. She made an instinctive motion for it but stopped, wondering if Troy would think it was rude for her to check it while they were around each other.

"It's okay." He said.

Gabriella pulled out her phone and saw it was a picture message from Stacy. She opened it up and smiled. "Troy, look at this."

She showed it to him and he smiled too. It was a picture Stacy had taken without them knowing, of them kissing a few minutes ago. Gabriella had her arms and legs wrapped around Troy and their lips were pressed against each other.

"That's a great picture." Troy said. "Could you send it to me?"

Gabriella smiled and nodded. She forwarded it to Troy's phone and set the picture as her wallpaper. Then she put her phone back in her pocket and snuggled into Troy again.

"Have you been feeling better?" Troy asked, saving the picture on his phone and returning it to his pocket.

"I've been able to keep more control of myself."

"Well, your first appointment at therapy is this Saturday. It's with a forty-three year old woman who works at a private office about five miles away from where we're living. She deals with people in your situation who have similar issues."

"That's lucky. You reserved the appointment?"

He nodded. "I reserved a lot of appointments for you. This Saturday at one o'clock is your first one."

Gabriella nodded, starting to worry again. "You think she'll be able to get me out of this?"

"Of course. If she can't, I'll find someone else. But I'll make sure you get what you need, no matter what."

Gabriella nodded slowly and leaned her head back against Troy's chest.

* * *

It was Saturday, almost time for Gabriella's appointment. She was pacing around nervously as Troy sat on the couch, filling out a form.

"Gabriella, you've got nothing to worry about. Everything will work out fine, I know it."

"I'm just scared that this will happen again." She said quietly, almost in a whisper.

Troy looked up at her with sympathy. "Gabriella, come here."

She walked slowly over to the couch and sat down on his lap, something she'd gotten used to doing. As she was wondering what he wanted, Troy wrapped both arms around her and leaned back so they were both lying down. He tucked her head next to a pillow and used his body to press her gently into the back of the couch.

"Gabriella," he said, touching his nose to hers, "You know that I love you more than anything in the world. Therefore, you know I won't stop until you're one hundred percent better. But I won't have to keep trying because I know this will work."

"I guess we'll find out what's wrong with me then."

"There's nothing wrong with you. You just need to figure things out. After that, everything will be much more clear."

"What if my arm scars?"

"Don't worry about that. Please just focus on now and everything will turn out perfectly."

* * *

Gabriella was in the car with Troy on the way over, fighting back tears again and trying not to let Troy notice. Troy kept repeating the same thing about how everything would be okay and she was starting to believe him.

They got there and Gabriella stared at what looked like a red-brown brick house with one floor.

"Is this it?"

"Yeah, this is where it is. Again, your therapist's name is Dr. James, but it's a woman." Troy said.

Gabriella nodded and walked around the car. She hugged Troy tightly. "I hope this works."

"It will. Don't worry about a thing." He started walking towards the building, taking Gabriella's hand.

* * *

"This will take about an hour, are you sure you want to wait?" Gabriella asked.

Troy nodded. "I might as well just stay here."

"Okay then, I'll be back out later." Gabriella and her therapist walked away and Troy sat near the main entrance.

"Right in here, Gabriella." Dr. James motioned to a relatively large room with a chair that was similar to a bed and another chair by the door, presumably the one for Dr. James.

The room was painted a light shade of green and there was nothing on the walls. There was a desk near the chair, but other than that the room was empty. There were a few large windows, letting in a good amount of sunlight, and two were open.

"So Gabriella, you can sit down in the chair that leans back and I'll just take a seat here." She sat down with a clipboard.

Gabriella lay back nervously in her chair, facing Dr. James.

"So Gabriella, I understand that the reason it was decided you should come here was that you cut your arm with a knife on purpose?"

Gabriella's breath caught in her throat and she looked around frantically.

"It's alright, I've seen a lot worse. Is that why?"

"Yes." She whispered.

"What?"

"Yes, that's why."

"Okay. I'm assuming that's what the bandage on your arm is for?"

"Yes."

"What happened before that?"

"Well, I was just feeling sad at random times. It got worse and worse until it got to the point where I would be at work or at home and suddenly feel this sadness inside me and I would eventually cry because of it."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I feel like I may be doing it to myself, but it's almost as if I feel like nobody wants to be around me and I'm useless."

Dr. James nodded. "I see this a lot. To eliminate big problems like hurting yourself or small ones like feeling sad all the time, you have to realize that they're all connected. They'll only get worse. It's like a weed. It gets taller and taller. You can rip of the top part so it's not as bad, which in this case means I can try to eliminate your urges to hurt yourself, but just like a weed, it'll grow right back. On the other hand, if I eliminate your random sadness it will eliminate that _and _your urges. So as you can see, the further down we go, the better. But, if I eliminate everything, then just like a weed, it'll all grow right back. So the only way take care of everything for good is to do the same thing you would do with a weed. Pull it out by the roots. Make sure the roots are all gone and you will never have to worry about it again. Closer to the ground are the earlier, more mild things like random crying. That's not the roots. That's the effect of the roots, and the predecessor to more extreme things like hurting yourself. Those are all effects, not the cause. The cause is the roots. So I'm not going to focus on getting rid of the effect, I'll get rid of the cause, which is the roots. Understand so far?"

Gabriella nodded, realizing that what she was saying made sense. "I understand. So basically your saying I should focus on what caused this whole thing to start in the first place?"

Dr. James smiled. "That's exactly what I'm saying. And I'm almost certain that what caused this in the first place is insecurity or hardship of some sort."

"Alright."

"So, have you always been kind of insecure?"

"Yeah, it started pretty much at the beginning of my life. I've just been like that. I've never really experienced bad hardship though." Gabriella looked down with guilt; she knew that was a lie.

"Okay, well then maybe it has something to do with insecurity. We should just be pondering different ideas on the first visit and then zero in on them in the next ones. So what about insecurities do you think it might be?"

"I don't know, sometimes I feel like I'm just looking for approval from people. Too often."

"Alright, well that seems like something that could cause sadness similar to what you're experiencing. And it makes sense that you would go extreme with it and hurt yourself because you'll end up feeling isolated and scared, in a way."

"Yeah, that's how I was feeling when I cut up my arm."

"And that makes perfect sense. So I think we may be getting somewhere already. Tell me more about how you feel with needing approval all the time."

Gabriella sighed. "I think it's shown through the most in the way I've been dating."

"That seems logical."

"My insecurities come along with feeling like I want a lot of attention and needing to be accepted. A few years ago that developed into feeling like I needed to be with someone and I was kind of loose when it came to that."

Dr. James nodded. "Tell me about your previous boyfriends."

"Oh...well recently I've just been with a lot of different guys because I was confused and couldn't really see the big picture, I guess similar to what's happening now. They were all a little pushy when it came to sex but then I kind of adapted and soon I was turning into a little bit if a slut and I guess that proves the thing I said earlier about how I'm insecure and stuff but then I stepped back and realized who I was becoming and decided to stop. That's when I met Troy, the guy who I was sitting with in the waiting room."

"So you've been taking it slowly with him?"

"Well, actually we're living together."

"How long have you been in a relationship with him?"

"About three or four weeks."

"That's not taking it slow, then."

"Yeah, but we didn't push each other, we both just felt it was right. He's different from everybody else and we've both gotten more disciplined when it comes to sex so we figured since we were perfect together and the timing is right, we might as well just live in the same house."

* * *

Gabriella walked out of therapy a little over an hour later. Troy was waiting in a chair near the entrance.

"You waited here?"

Troy nodded. "An hour's no big deal."

Gabriella smiled, leaned down and kissed Troy on the forehead. Dr. James had left for another room and Gabriella was finished and ready to leave.

"How did it go?" Troy asked, standing up.

Gabriella walked towards the door with him. "It was a lot easier than I thought. She told me the main way to get back to the way I was before I started randomly crying and stuff."

"What did she say to do?"

"She said that the first session was really an overview of the rest of our sessions, and she told me that I should be trying to figure out the root cause of what made me like this and when I tell her, she'll help me step back or something like that and see the big picture, which she said shouldn't be hard because I already did that with the thing going on with my old boyfriends."

"I'm sure whatever it is, you'll do fine. And once you figure out the root cause, could you also tell me what it is?"

"Of course." Gabriella said.

There was a secret about her past that Gabriella knew was the root cause and she knew it was responsible for this, but she wasn't sure she wanted to tell Troy. She didn't even know if she wanted to tell her therapist. Even though she knew she had to tell Dr. James and she _should _tell Troy, she never wanted to bring it up again. It hurt her every time she thought about it. At the same time, she realized if she held it in forever it would probably drive her insane. Feeling torn about what to do, she sighed with frustration and felt herself start to cry again.

**SO WHAT DO YOU THINK GABRIELLA'S SECRET WILL BE? I HOPE EVERYBODY LIKES THIS STORY SO FAR, I'M REALLY TRYING TO MAKE IT INTERESTING! THE NEXT CHAPTER MAY TAKE A WHILE TO PUT OUT, BUT IT'S WORTH IT BECAUSE IT'S A REALLY IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLOT. PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STORY AND LEAVE A REVIEW! I LOVE HEARING WHAT PEOPLE THINK AND I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR INPUT ABOUT WHAT GABRIELLA'S SECRET SHOULD BE. THANKS, AND I'LL UPDATE SOON!**


	8. Gabriella's Secret

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER EIGHT**

Taylor opened her front door and smiled. "Hey Gabriella."

Gabriella nodded. "Hi. Can we talk?"

"Sure, about what?" She let Gabriella into her house and closed the door behind them.

"I don't know what to call it."

"Okay." Taylor said, a little confused.

Gabriella walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Taylor took the spot next to her. "So what's up?"

"You know that I'm going to therapy, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the therapist said the way to get back to normal again was to focus on the root cause of all this. When I do, I should tell her what it is and then she'll work with me on getting me back to normal. I've figured out what it is, but I haven't told anyone yet. I want to tell you first so I can see your reaction and that'll make it easier to tell Troy and my therapist."

"Why are you worried?"

"Because I think Troy might leave me over it."

Taylor was surprised to hear her say that. "What? No, don't worry. He won't leave you."

"Well, you don't know what the secret is yet."

"Okay, then what is it?"

Gabriella sighed. "I guess I should just say. I flunked out of college, that's what got it started."

Taylor nodded. "Then what happened?"

"I didn't want to be homeless, so I moved into the cheapest apartment I could find. It was only a block away from a Motel 6. My rent was pretty cheap, but I still couldn't pay it. There were no jobs available that I could get so I figured out that if I we're making about a dollar a day, I could pay for rent and only bare necessities, and it helped that I was on Welfare. So I turned to the only way I could make a couple dollars a day, which was by going over to the Motel 6."

Taylor nodded slowly. "Okay...and what did you do there?"

Gabriella looked down and closed her eyes. "I started selling myself."

Taylor stuttered. "What?"

"I was a prostitute."

"You...Gabriella Montez?"

She nodded and bit her lower lip. "Nobody around here knows because I moved the first chance I got. I moved far away, over here."

"Why did you turn to prostitution?" Because you couldn't pay your rent?" Taylor asked, in complete shock.

"Yes. I went over to the entrance of the Motel 6 every evening and started selling myself to guys who were willing to pay me a dollar. I didn't want to do that because I wanted to find somebody who loved me just like I want to now, but I had no choice. And I think the fact that I wanted love, even then, showed through because I would sometimes become emotionally attached to the men who payed me. And occasionally I would start crying when I asked them why they didn't want a relationship, but none of them ever wanted one."

Taylor sat silently. "I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry."

Gabriella nodded and fought back tears. "It really left a lot of emotional scars, to have guys having intercourse with me in their room and then literally just make me walk away when they finished. They didn't even let me spend the night. It made me feel worthless and I managed to forget about it for a few years when I moved here but now it's catching up to me and that's why I've been crying and cutting myself. It really had some long term psychological effects that are hurting me now. That's why it's good that I'm in therapy, because it would've only gotten worse."

"Is that the secret?"

"Yeah."

Taylor nodded. "Well, I'm sure it will be easy for your therapist to help you. Don't worry, she'll help you get over it."

"What about Troy?"

"I think he would probably understand."

Gabriella shook her head. "I don't know. I'm scared already. Nobody's ever made me feel so loved, it would be devastating if we broke up because of this when I know we can go so far."

* * *

Gabriella was in Starbucks the next day, and this time the place was packed. It was lunch hour on a Monday and there were a lot of customers. So Gabriella wanted to tell not only Taylor, but she also wanted to see how Stacy reacted when she found out.

"Hey, Stacy?" Gabriella called out.

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you at break?"

"Yeah, sure."

Gabriella and Stacy's breaks both started in five minutes. Gabriella hadn't worked up the courage to confess to Troy yet, instead she had tried to show as much affection to him as she could without him thinking something was wrong, in order to increase his love towards her so he would have a hard time leaving her. She had walked with him by Silver Lake, which was about a mile from their house. She'd kept the subject to their feelings and when they got home, didn't hesitate to take him right up to the bedroom.

"Hey Gabriella." Stacy walked up to her a few minutes later. "What were you going to say?"

"Come back here." Gabriella walked into the storage room with Stacy. "I told you why I cut my arm, right?"

"Yeah."

Gabriella closed the door so they had privacy. "Well, my therapist said that I needed to tell her about the root cause of my problems so she could help me get better. I figured out what the root cause is."

"What is it?"

Gabriella explained to Stacy what she had said to Taylor, including the Welfare part, the Motel 6, the rent, the rejected relationships and the emotional scars, except this time she said the entire thing without waiting for questions. Stacy's reaction was similar to Taylor's.

"Wh...what?" She just stared at Gabriella. "Wait...Gabriella...you're a former prostitute?"

Gabriella couldn't hold back this time and felt her tears come out. "Yes, I just told you why. I had to and I didn't want to. Don't think less of me."

"It's not that I think less of you, I'm just shocked. I had no idea. What did Troy say?"

"I haven't told him. That's why I wanted to tell you first. What do you think he'll do?"

Stacy shook her head slowly. "I...I don't know."

"You don't think he'll leave me, do you?"

"I hope not. I think he would understand, if he doesn't you'll just have to explain to him that you had no choice."

* * *

Gabriella was at home on the couch that day. Troy was going to be there in about five to ten minutes and she wasn't sure how she was going to tell him. Maybe it would be best to let him get settled in and casually bring it up. She figured that it wouldn't be good to wait until night and wanted to tell him at about the time evening came.

She heard the garage door open and her heart started beating faster. There was already a bad feeling in her stomach.

Troy opened the door and walked into the house. "Hey Gabriella!" He came quickly over to her and scooped her into his arms, rolling on top of her.

"Hi Troy." She actually wished he wasn't so happy to see her, that was going to make this a lot more difficult.

"How did today go?"

"Oh, it was good. Normal."

"Good. I couldn't stop thinking about you all day, I'm just feeling so much more devoted to you." He kissed her on the mouth and nuzzled his face into her neck.

"I'm glad to hear that. There's something I want to tell you later, though."

"Alright sure, you can tell me anything."

* * *

Gabriella looked out the window and saw that the sky was a light shade of pink. The sun was dipping below the trees and she was feeling the same nervousness in her stomach as when Troy came home. He was sitting next to her and they had been talking for a while about everything ranging from work to the woods next to their neighborhood.

"Oh, Troy?" Gabriella asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Yeah?"

"Remember how the therapist told me to find the root cause of what made me like this?"

He nodded.

"Well, I think I've found it."

"Oh." He leaned forward towards her. "What is it?"

"Um..." She felt herself start hyperventilating. "Uh, it started when I flunked out of college."

"You flunked out of college?"

"Yeah. But that's not what caused it."

"Well then, what happened?"

"When I flunked out, I had no job and nowhere to live." She said. "I found an apartment with really cheap rent and I planned on living there but I still had no way to even earn a penny."

"So what did you do? Get the job at Starbucks that you have now?"

"Oh, no. This was when I was living hundreds of miles away from here. There were no jobs available and I really had no way to travel. So I knew I had to get the cheap apartment but I had no way to pay for it." She started having seconds thoughts about telling him. "So it was tough."

Troy looked at her, confused. "That's it? What happened? Did you get enough money to live in the apartment?"

"Yes, but it was always a struggle. I was barely able to pay for it, but I did."

"How?"

Gabriella looked down, more nervous than ever. "I...I don't know, I just did."

"Gabriella..." Troy slid his arms around her and pulled her tightly into him. "Gabriella, please tell me?"

She couldn't stand the affection he was showing her because she knew it would make it worse when he found out. She would rather say it from across the room than when she was in his arms. Gabriella looked in the other direction, desperate not to make eye contact. Breathing uncontrollably, she answered him. "There was a Motel 6 about a block away from my apartment. I needed a way to earn money since I didn't have any, so I...I managed to get it."

"How did you get it?"

"I really wish you would figure it out so I didn't have to say it."

"You didn't steal, right?"

"No. I didn't have a job but I was still making money."

"How were you...wait...no you weren't. What did you actually do?"

"I walked to the Motel 6 every evening and I got the money to pay my rent. That was the only way I could get it. So obviously, as I'm sure you figured out by now, I went over there to...I was doing what I needed to do..." Gabriella wiped a tear from her eye and swallowed hard. She knew she had to say it eventually and dragging it out was only making things worse. She looked at the floor and spoke quietly. "I started taking money for sex."

Gabriella sat there, holding in her tears, waiting for Troy to say something. The response she got was nothing more than dead silence. She wished she could snap her fingers and disappear. Wanting to remain motionless and not draw any attention to herself, she pointed her eyes at him. Troy was staring straight ahead at the wall, his face completely expressionless, not saying a word. It was the most awkward silence Gabriella had ever been in. Her stomach was twisted into a million knots as she waited for Troy to react. He turned his head towards her and they made eye contact.

Gabriella was about to see how he would respond, if he would forgive her, and if this was the end of their relationship.

**I KNOW ENDING THE CHAPTER RIGHT THERE MAKES IT KIND OF A CLIFFHANGER, BUT THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL PICK UP RIGHT FROM WHERE I'M LEAVING OFF! I'LL START WORKING ON IT RIGHT AWAY. IT'LL BE OUT SOON!**


	9. A New Start

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER NINE**

Gabriella waited for Troy's reaction. He was staring straight ahead, not even moving. He turned his head towards her and they made eye contact.

"Gabriella..."

"I had no option. I'm sorry, I should've told you earlier."

Troy shook his head. "Don't be sorry." he said quietly, looking down at the floor and shaking his head. He turned and wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding the back of her head with his hand. Her hair was all over her face and she started crying.

Troy squeezed her tightly against his body as he held her. "Gabriella, I'm so sorry."

"You're not mad?"

"Of course not. How could I be mad over that? In those circumstances?"

"I thought you were going to break up with me."

"I would never leave you over something like that. Especially at such an important time for you. We both knew you needed help getting your life back to normal and I could never leave now. I don't blame you for doing what you did, especially since I know that's not who you want to be. That's not the real you. I know the real you, and the real you wants love. A lifelong partner. You're not a slut."

Gabriella's crying slowed down and she tried to gain control of her breathing.

"You have another appointment at therapy tomorrow. You should tell Dr. James what you told me. Once you've done that, things get easy. She'll help you, you'll get better and you can move on for good."

* * *

Gabriella sat in the therapy room with Dr. James the next day. She wasn't feeling nervous at all, which was what she had been expecting. Instead it was like she knew she was about to forget her past and her life would move on.

"Oh, remember how last time you said I should try to find the cause of what had been making me feel like this?"

"Yes, in fact that's the one thing I was going to try and get out of you today." Dr. James said.

"Well, I know what it is." Gabriella wasn't even feeling nervous to say it; it was almost like this was a different person she was talking about. "I used to be a prostitute. I couldn't pay my rent so I started selling myself. Eventually I was able to move here, but the long term affetcs have been with me."

"Oh." Her therapist said, a bit surprised. "Well, do you feel like that's still you?"

"No, I feel like I've changed and that's not me anymore. I have good intentions and I want a normal life. I just think that when I start to feel the normal life where I don't even think about that, the crying and hurting myself will go away."

"Well that's great to know. Basically, you've just found how to completely heal yourself emotionally. I just want you to believe you can, that's the number one thing you can do. Think about normal things and forget your past, but learn from your mistakes. You have people supporting you, you have me, and I can tell your boyfriend loves you more than anything else in his life. He's there for you and I would recommend letting him take you back to the way you were simply by being around him and just acting like a normal couple. Try to get out for a lot of walks with him, don't spend too much time in the house or else you'll feel like you can't break free. You said you're living with him?"

Gabriella nodded.

"Well then try to think of that as your new start in life. You're happy and everything bad is behind you. You're now living in another house with someone, that really signals a new start psychologically. Just be yourself, try not to over-analyze anything about your life, try not to revisit the past, and know that if you do, you have a whole new group of people who are here for you in this new start that will help bring you back to the present. Things are going to work out for you, I know it. I can tell that this is the point your life will settle down and things will start improving. Everything will turn out fine."

Gabriella smiled and believed her. What she was saying made sense and when she thought about it that way, she knew that things were going to get better. She knew her life was settling down, she knew the worst was behind her and she knew that this was the start of a new, simpler, easier life. She was excited to move on and now she knew that she could.

* * *

Gabriella walked into the waiting room after only thirty minutes. Troy looked up at her, surprised. She was walking towards him, smiling happily. "Troy, I have great news."

He stood up. "Great. Did you tell her?"

"Yes, and she told me exactly what I needed to hear. I had never even thought about it this way. But I feel like I have a new life now and I can move on from everything that ever happened in the past."

She told him what Dr. James had said on the way home, being careful not to leave anything out. She made sure to emphasize how Troy was basically her main key to a new life and he was smiling the whole time. She said what Dr. James had told her to think and what to do, and it made sense to her as she said it. It felt like she had just started a new life and wiped the past clean out of her memory. This was happier than she had felt in a long time, she could safely say her problems were disappearing, she was excited for the future, and her life was getting back to normal.

**I KNOW THAT WAS A REALLY SHORT AND REALLY LAME CHAPTER, BUT THAT'S BECAUSE THIS STORY IS GOING TO START WINDING DOWN. I KNOW THERE AREN'T MANY CHAPTERS SO FAR, BUT THERE ARE ONLY GOING TO BE A COUPLE MORE CHAPTERS IN THIS STORY BEFORE IT ENDS. I'LL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING THOUGH, EVEN IF I HAVE TO SKIP AHEAD IN TIME. SORRY TO EVERYONE WHO LIKED READING THIS, I DEFINITELY LIKED WRITING IT, BUT I JUST DON'T HAVE ANYMORE IDEAS THAT ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE PLOT. DON'T WORRY, IT WON'T END WITH A MONTH-LONG RELATIONSHIP. I'LL SKIP AHEAD IN TIME SO THERE'S A REALLY GOOD, REALLY HAPPY ENDING. IT'LL TAKE A COUPLE CHAPTERS, BUT NOW GABRIELLA HAS MOVED ON FROM HER PROBLEMS AND IS READY FOR THE HAPPY ENDING. I'LL START WORKING ON IT RIGHT AWAY, ESPECIALLY SINCE I'VE GOTTEN TIRED OF WRITING ABOUT HER EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS AND I JUST WANT HER TO BE HAPPY AGAIN. SO THAT'LL HAPPEN IN THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS, AND SOON THE STORY WILL END. I PROMISE I'LL MAKE IT HAPPY AND THEY'LL BE TOGETHER IN THE END. I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO SKIP AHEAD IN TIME. ANYWAY, PLEASE REVIEW, AND THIS STORY ISN'T OVER YET, THERE ARE STILL A COUPLE MORE CHAPTERS, SO PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STORY! THANKS, AND I'LL POST THE NEXT CHAPTER SOON!**


	10. Meant To Be

**WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE - CHAPTER TEN**

**THIS WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE STORY. SORRY BUT I DECIDED TO SKIP AHEAD IN TIME AND JUST HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. I HOPE YOU'VE LIKED THE STORY SO FAR, SO HERE'S THE LAST CHAPTER.**

**ONE YEAR LATER**

Troy looked over at Gabriella, who was walking into the living room. They were both still living together in Troy's house. "Gabriella, come here."

"I was coming over anyway. We just set a record; it's ninety-one degrees out. The warmest it's been all year." She sat down on the couch next to him.

"Gabriella, I was thinking tomorrow we could get up really early and drive over to the beach. Like we wake up at five thirty and go over before sunrise."

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow, laughing. "Since when have you wanted to get up early? I always end up dragging you out of bed at ten."

"Well, this time it's gonna be different. And actually, remember how that one time we went before, you loved the really high waves? We could stay for a while...like till noon or something. And go out to the waves."

"Oh that would be awesome! What gave you the idea?"

"I just felt that would be something fun to do."

"So we'll get there by six? Cause the sun's coming up a bit after that."

"Alright. So we'll set the alarm for 5:30. From there, just put your suit on and clothes over top, then we'll head over."

She smiled and pressed herself against him. "Alright."

He kissed her on top of the head. "Then we'll watch the sun rise on the beach."

"That sounds perfect."

Troy looked out the window and smiled. There was something good that he wasn't telling her about, and she would absolutely love it when she realized what it was.

* * *

Gabriella looked over at the buzzing clock. Her arm instinctively hit the snooze button. She resolved to get up ten minutes later when it went off again, and put her arm back down.

"Troy..."

He didn't respond. The alarm hadn't even woken him up. She smiled and rolled on top of him, resting her head down on his chest. Her eyes closed and she started wondering how she would be able to get out of bed this early when the room was so quiet, peaceful, she was tired and Troy was underneath her.

The minutes ticked by, and Gabriella heard the buzzing sound again. She groaned and shut it off. Troy was still asleep. Gabriella put her hair back into its normal place and adjusted her head so her curls were dangling over Troy's face. She lowered them a bit and moved her head back and forth so her hair tickled his forehead and eyelids.

Troy turned his head over and his eyes opened a bit. Gabriella leaned into his cheek and kissed him. "Wake up baby, this was your idea." She smiled and stroked his forehead.

He smiled weakly and his eyes opened all the way. "It's five thirty?"

"A little later."

Troy stretched and sat up. "Let's hope I don't fall asleep driving."

"If you do, and I die, I'm gonna be really mad at you." She laughed.

Troy walked out of the room and grabbed his bathing suit and some clothes. "I'll be downstairs." He ran into the morning room and got what he had been wanting to show her. After putting it in his pocket, he went into the kitchen.

Fifteen minutes later, they were walking into the garage towards the car. Troy opened the garage door and they both got into the front.

"So Troy, it's about a ten minute drive?"

"About ten minutes." He started to back the car out. "We'll get there by sunrise."

As they drove down the faded road, Troy felt his pocket. He knew it would still be there; he just had to keep confirming. Gabriella Montez was the most amazing girl he had ever known and that he would ever lay eyes on, and there were no regrets.

"The sky's getting a dull pink, Troy. We made it."

"Just barely in time." He turned off the road and headed down to where the quiet, calm beach was waiting. The stars were still in the sky and the waves weren't reaching any higher than a couple of feet. Later in the day, though, they would be awesome.

When they pulled up into the parking lot, Troy and Gabriella brought only themselves and a towel on the short walk to the sand.

"Gabriella, look over there. There's a huge open patch and it's really smooth."

"I don't really care where we go, but that looks great."

They spread the towel out when they stopped walking, and Gabriella sat down on it. Troy lay down behind her on his back. She stretched out so she was on her back and on top of him, all except for her head, which was touching the side of his.

"So here we are."

Gabriella smiled. "At six in the morning. The sun's almost up and we aren't in bed...we're lying on a towel looking at the waves and watching the sky turn pink."

"At six o'clock, that's better than being in bed."

"Definitely."

Troy's eyes shifted onto Gabriella as he stroked the box in his pocket. Her curls were hanging down, and two of them were on Troy's face. Her cheeks felt soft and smooth, and her eyes were glistening with the reflection of the pink sky. "I love you."

She looked over at him and smiled. "I love you too. And it's great to be out here with you."

"Have you ever thought about the changes in life? Like how when you were a kid you looked at adults like another species but now it's like...what happened? Almost as if you didn't notice time going by."

"It does seem like that. But then again, great things come when you're grown up that you didn't have before. You lose things from your childhood, but gain things when you shift into adulthood. So it cancels out."

"Well, in a lot of ways, I'm glad that I'm at the age I'm at. The things I have now I'm pretty satisfied with, and it's great to look forward to another likely change. Marriage."

Gabriella smiled at Troy. "I know. That's the one I can't wait for. You know how much I want that with you and how good I feel to be around you."

"You know that I also want to live with you forever, right?"

"I know."

They lay there for a while and the sky got brighter as the first part of the sun started to show. Troy sensed Gabriella's presence more and more as the time got closer.

She had him fascinated for what seemed like forever. Since he first saw her, looking so shy and scared, he knew she was special. It was just so amazing to be with her all the time, and he thought about all the times they'd shared together. All the times they'd seen the sun go down together. Troy remembered the first night they spent together and how amazing it felt to watch her and know that she would be there until morning. That was something he hadn't ever taken for granted. He thought about the first time he told her he loved her. And all the times he'd held her while she cried, not caring about anything else in the world besides her. There were so many times and days and nights where they'd both been thrilled by each other, and just being together and realizing how much they needed to be with each other were great experiences. Troy was completely ready to spend his life with her.

The sun was about a third of the way up, and now the tops of the trees had that horizon light on them. "Gabriella..."

She opened her eyes a bit and looked up at him. "Hmm?"

"I need you to wake up. All the way."

"Why?"

"Because I want to ask you something."

"Alright."

She sat up and pulled herself closer to Troy. Gabriella had both her arms around his back and he placed his left hand on the side of her face. She blinked a few times to wake herself up completely.

"I know you love me as a husband."

Her smile spread across her entire face. "Of course I do Troy."

"Well, I just wanted to tell you how much I love you."

"I already know that you love me as a wife; you've told me so many times."

Troy reached into his pocket and took the ring out of its box. He put it on the towel next to them so she couldn't see it and brought both hands back up into her view.

"Well, you know that I can't describe in words how much you mean to me. And that I would spend my entire life with you and never question it once."

"I know."

"And do you feel the same way about me?"

"Yes. I would never even have to think about it."

"And you want to spend the rest of your life with me?"

"I want that more than anything. And I know you feel the same way too."

"That's how I feel. So Gabriella…" Troy reached his right hand down and picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Remember how I talked about the turning points in life?"

She nodded.

"This is one of those." He put the ring between them. She looked at it and her eyes widened.

"Troy…"

He smiled. "Gabriella Montez…"

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Her eyes were trapped on the ring, which was a shiny light blue diamond in the middle surrounded by a small ring of gold. When she looked back at Troy, he stared right into her eyes. They were filling with tears.

"Will you marry me?"

"Troy! Of course I will!" She started stuttering and Troy couldn't understand her as she cried more. She wrapped her arms the rest of the way around him and squeezed to the point of suffocating. Her head was right under his chin and her face was pressed into his neck. Troy lay back down so she was on top of him.

"I love you Gabriella."

"I love you too." Her tears were pouring down her face.

Troy kissed her on top of her head and she pulled closer towards him. He reached under her chin and gently pulled it up so her eyes were looking into his. Troy wiped the remaining tears off her face and she stared at him with an expression of ultimate hope. "I'll always love you."

The sun was almost up all the way and Troy's head was filled with relief. He didn't feel like he could go through life without her, and it was great to know that they would actually be spending their lives together. There was so much in their future to look forward to. All the great times they'd share together were still ahead of them. The sun was coming up on just one of the endless days they would be together, and they were now going to spend it together, side by side.

**SO THAT'S THE END OF THE STORY! I KNOW IT WAS KIND OF SHORT, ONLY TEN CHAPTERS, BUT I STILL HOPE EVERYBODY LIKED IT! PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME YOUR FINAL THOUGHTS! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR THE ONE!**


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